A Re-pat I Am

                            

       a re-pat I am;

   one some think amusing

the Brooklyn accent 

deemed irrelevant

  a symbol like Yin-Yang 

 for Chinese immigrants only

wasting food in an Ohio River town

unlike a bike ride through Chiayi

to a lake that no one visits

where  a Turkish expat stays put

serving the re-pat 

at his final Taiwan meal 

where grandpa can't survive

alone by the Han or Ohio River

no one's friend but mine

a re-pat unlike a Canarsie Indian

 fed up with Flatlands

finding British Lady Moody

down Gravesend Neck Road

 to Brooklyn suburban

 like a good boychik does

making his way back from Taiwan's stolen shore

feeling no need 

to go back anymore

where I feel asleep with leftovers

nothing well-heeled

privileged with material happiness

with jovial last words of security

i wake to join 

and flow with four rivers:

Monongahela, Ohio, Allegheny and Beaver

before Pittsburgh or Duquesne 

massacred and evicted

returned for an awakening

my social addiction

 

August 8, 2021